Live action: Twitter grabs Super Bowl spotlight

This image provided by Oreo's shows the image the company's marketers tweeted some 10 minutes after the power went out during the Super Bowl XLVII football game on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. As of Monday afternoon, the image had been re-tweeted more than 15,000 times. (AP Photo/Oreo's )
— AP

This image provided by Oreo's shows the image the company's marketers tweeted some 10 minutes after the power went out during the Super Bowl XLVII football game on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. As of Monday afternoon, the image had been re-tweeted more than 15,000 times. (AP Photo/Oreo's )
/ AP

Mondelez likely spent the going rate of as much as $4 million on its Super Bowl television spot. But Guzzinati says the company didn't pay Twitter anything for the "dunk in the dark" picture. Still, Twitter says advertisers moved quickly following the outage.

Matt McGee, editor-in-chief of the blog Marketing Land, counted 26 Twitter mentions in the 52 national spots that aired during the game. Facebook, meanwhile, got only four shout-outs, while Google Plus walked away with zero (though Google Inc.'s YouTube scored one mention from Hyundai).

"When it comes to second-screen advertising, it's Twitter's world now and there's no close second place," McGee wrote in a blog post late Sunday night. "Last year, brands split their focus on Twitter and Facebook with eight mentions each. This year, brands recognize that Twitter is where they need to try to attract the online conversation around one of the world's biggest events."

David Berkowitz, vice president of emerging media at 360i, which worked on the Oreo campaign, says Twitter has done a good job tying itself into major television events.

"If you look at (Twitter's) trending topics any day especially during prime time or major events, they're heavily fueled by television," he says. "So TV is responsible for Twitter's growth in general."

He thinks Twitter has done a better job than other social media sites like Tumblr and Pinterest in proving it's the place to be when it comes to talking about big events online.

"A large part of it right now is just showing this is where the conversation is happening and building their brand around that," he says. "Even with other very successful social media sites, no one is better at conversation than Twitter."